趁年輕去旅游吧

　　The other night I had a conversation with a young woman who had a number of decisions ahead of her, one of which was whether she should go to grad school or travel the world.

　　不久前的一個晚上，我和一個年輕女孩聊天，她有很多事情拿不定主意，其中一個是她不知道是去研究所工作還是環(huán)游世界。

　　I told her to travel. Hands down. No excuse. Just go.

　　我告訴她應該去旅行。放下手頭的一切。沒有任何理由，去旅游吧。

　　She sighed. “Yeah, but…”

　　她嘆了口氣。“是的，但是……”

　　Never were more fatal words spoken.

　　但接下來，她并沒有再說出什么致命性的話。

　　Yeah, but… what about debt?

　　是的，但是……欠的錢怎么辦呢?

　　Yeah, but… what about my job?

　　是的，但是……工作呢?

　　Yeah, but… what about my boyfriend (or dog or car or whatever)?

　　是的，但是……我的男朋友呢(或小狗，汽車以及其他的東西)?

　　“Yeah, but…” is pernicious. Because it makes it sound like we have the best of intentions when really we are just too scared to do what we should. It allows us to be cowards, while sounding noble.

　　“是的，但是……”這句話很不好。聽起來就好像我們很多美好的想法沒有實現(xiàn)只是因為顧慮太多。 這句話聽起來冠冕堂皇，其實只不過表明我們是懦夫。

　　Most people I know who waited to travel the world never did. Be careful of the yeah-but. The yeah-but will kill your dreams. I was so stirred by this conversation that I shared it with a group of about thirty young adults last night, many who were asking these very questions.

　　我認識的大多數(shù)人都有環(huán)游世界的愿望，卻一直沒有付諸行動。當心“是的，但是...” 這句話，它會扼殺你很多夢想。這次聊天在我心中掀起很大波瀾，昨晚我跟一群30歲左右的年輕人說起這個話題，他們當中很多人問的也是這些問題。

　　When you get older, life seems to just sort of happen to you. Your youth is a time of total empowerment. You get to do what you want. As you mature and gain new responsibilities, you have to be very intentional about making sure you don’t lose sight of what’s important. So if you still have a reasonable amount of control over your circumstances，you should do what really matters. Because life won’t always be just about you.

　　隨著年紀的增大，人生似乎愈來愈帶著幾分宿命的味道。年少的時光是唯一一段自己可以完全做主的時光。你可以做任何你想做的事。隨著你逐漸成熟，不斷扛起新的責任，你得時刻提醒自己不要忘了什么才是重要的。因此，如果你的生活仍然有一部分能夠自由支配的話，應該去做那些重要的事情。因為生活不會永遠只屬于你一個人。

　　During early adulthood your worldview is still being formed. It’s important to stewardthis time —to give yourself opportunities to grow. A good way to do that is to travel.

　　剛成年時，你的世界觀仍在形成期。如何管理這段時期非常重要，要給自己一個成長的機會。一個好辦法就是去旅游。